In 1964, Antioch College opened a new center on the East Coast to offer graduate education with a practical bent. The new school, called Antioch-Putney, opened its doors in Putney, Vermont.

The school moved from Putney to Harrisville, in the New Hampshire hills. It expanded, offering more graduate programs and expanding the scope of the education department. The name was then changed to Antioch New England Graduate School.

Antioch College of Ohio was the most well-known campus in the system, founded in 1852 by Horace Mann and known for its liberal politics, for example its 1990 policy requiring explicit verbal consent before any sexual act amongst students. Coretta Scott King and Stephen Jay Gould were graduates.

However, the Antioch system faced difficult times in the 2000s. Its board chose to close Antioch College to retrench and reduce costs. An alumni-controlled group was able to negotiate a separation between Antioch College and the adult education system of which Antioch University New England is a part.[2] AUNE no longer is affiliated with Antioch College.

Antioch University New England, as it is currently known, is situated in a renovated furniture factory in Keene, New Hampshire, almost exactly midway between the former locations. It serves a student body of around 1,000 students, offering four certificate programs, master's degrees in twenty-three different programs, and three doctoral programs.

According to Antioch University New England, 73% of their students are female and 70% are from New England.[3]

Students are required to perform up to 600 hours of on-the-job experience through internships. Classes are scheduled with the working student in mind. To create the time for those internships, each department usually holds all its classes on one or two days of the week.

Antioch University New England department of Applied Psychology offers master's degrees in

Clinical Mental Health Counseling, accredited by CACREP, prepares students to sit for examination as an LMHC/LPC, and includes an option to focus specifically on Substance Abuse Counseling. It is the only program in New England which offers graduates the ability to be dually licensed as Mental Health Counselors (LMHC/LPC) and Substance Abuse Counselors (LDAC).

Antioch University New England offers master's of education degrees in Elementary, Early Childhood, and Special Education Teacher Certification; Working Educators; and Waldorf Teacher Education, as well as a certificate in Waldorf Teacher Education. The Working Educator MEd program offers seven concentrations: Next Generation Learning Using Technology, Educating for Sustainability, Teacher Leadership, Problem-Based Learning Using Critical Skills, Self-Designed, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Applied Behavior Analysis, as well as an MEd and a certificate in Principal Certification.

The university offers one of three established Waldorf Teacher Training programs in the United States (besides Sunbridge Institute and Rudolf Steiner College). Antioch's Waldorf training program offers optional state certification and master's degree additions to the Waldorf training. The Antioch Center for School Renewal, the service wing of the education department, provides support for teachers and schools.

AUNE offers a master's degree in Environmental Studies with concentrations in conservation biology, advocacy for social justice and sustainability, environmental education, science teacher certification, sustainable development and climate change, and self-designed studies. It also offers a master's degree in resource management and conservation and a PhD in environmental studies.

A student internship in Environmental Studies eventually blossomed into a journal published nation-wide and respected in its field. Antioch University New England proudly reaps the fruit of that project, the biennial annual environmental journal Whole Terrain, a journal of "reflective environmental practice."

Antioch University New England's Advocacy for Social Justice and Sustainability concentration was recognized by MoveOn.org's Executive Director, Eli Pariser, as a model program for working positively to promote and protect the environment.[4]

Tom Wessels is faculty emeritus in Antioch's Department of Environmental Studies faculty. His books include The Myth of Progress: Toward a Sustainable Future (2006 ISBN 978-1584654957), Untamed Vermont (2003), The Granite Landscape: A Natural History of America’s Mountain Domes from Acadia to Yosemite (2001), Forest Forensics: A Field Guide to Reading the Forested Landscape (2010 ISBN 978-0881509182) and Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England (1997 ISBN 978-0881504200)."